Lighting Putz Houses

[paulrace]

A reader e-mailed me and asked how to hide the wires between the houses. I gave her one way to do it, but it occurred to me that it would be nice to know how you all light your houses, and how you hide your wiring.

[maria]

My friend Judi hides the wires under mounds of fluffy cotton snow:

[maria]

While my friend Judi uses mounds of fluffy cotton snow, see the picture above, I hide mine under tinsel Christmas tree garland (the really fluffy kind). To keep it and the wires in place, I use French bobby pins to lock them into place in the styrofoam bases I use.

[les]

I use what's called Christmas drape, ie; a thin cotton-like batting, that I tear apart and lay over the wires. I also use it to cover up the light opening in the back of the house. I buy it on amazon.com.

Like the tinsel garland idea, Maria!

[Tom Hull]

This must have been a consideration way back when with Series C6 strings. I have a very old one that has white woven silk over the insulation. She early on (like in the era of early printies) had a Christmas village she displayed and I have the only survior of hers AND the series string. This was made this way to hide more easily in the cotton. Tom

[Lynn]

I use a white heavy weight felt type batting, doubled. I then run the lights under the batting cut small slit type holes and pull the bulbs up through the holes right in back of the houses. For the bulbs that run in-between the houses I remove. I use battery operated LED light bulbs 20 per string I run the wires for the street lanterns the same way. It takes a bit of time but the results have worked out well.

[paulrace]

The reader who started this discussion sent me this thank-you for the kind folks who answered her question:

Nice to receive so many responses. Thanks to everyone who responded with their own great ideas.

This Christmas, I also used the light weight cotton snow to cover the wires, but it is so light that it moves around a lot. Plus, the entire village looked like it had been buried under six feet of snow (a little too close to reality for me). I also used bobby pins to anchor the wires in place.

I would like to make my layout permanent (minus the building, trees, etc.) so I don't have to redo it each year. I have visions of the base leaning against my basement wall with the bulbs and wires securely in place (covered with an old sheet for dust) so that all I have to do is bring the base out before Christmas and place the components on it. I think the snow blanket folded in half with the wires running in between the layers sounds like a good idea.

Again, thanks Paul for providing this great opportunity to exchange ideas and to those who responded to my question.

Alvera

[maria]

You can weigh down the cotton blanket--which I do use sparingly here and there in odd little places, with glass globs that you get in the 99 cents store. You can see some of them which I also use for decorative purposes and to pick up light and add sparkle scattered across my putz scene above.

[Nan]

I used a length of thinish white velour, put it over the styrofoam pieces I used to raise the houses to the right level, cut slits (as Lynn did, I think) and poked the lights through the slits and into the light holes of the houses. Used two regular Christmas light bulbs per house. I had tried the battery-operated LED lights but they are pretty directional, and didn't give the cheerful effect I wanted. So we took strands of 20 regular bulbs, rewired them with shrink wrap crimp connectors so there were 10 pairs that were about 4 inches apart with about 14 inches between the pairs to accommodate the house spacing.
I had to leave a blank space on the velour because my white cat decided he wanted to camouflage himself among the houses. Fortunately, he was happy using the same space each time.
I've also been thinking about Alvera's idea of a reusable base, covered with a dust sheet. This should be relatively easy, since my display area is 67" X 21", maximum (including cat). Would cover the underside with extra padding to avoid scratching the furniture it's on.
Looking forward to hearing other people's ideas.

[paulrace]

Actually the resuable base note was from Alvera, I just posted it because she wasn't signed up yet. I edited your text accordingly - hope you don't mind.

Paul